§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the current period of waiting for orthopaedic patients (i) nationally and (ii) in the North East Thames region; and what proposals he has to provide additional funds to reduce this waiting time.
§ Mr. NewtonThe table shows the latest available information for cases admitted from the waiting list: 553W
Estimated median interval in weeks between the date an in-patient was placed on the waiting list and the date of admission, for patients discharged from Traumatic and Orthopaedic departments during 1985 Region of treatment Weeks North East Thames RHA 13 England 12 The first year's allocation of £25 million from the waiting list fund will enable health authorities to treat over 100,000 additional waiting list cases in 1987–88. These will include several thousand joint replacements and other orthopaedic procedures. The North-East Thames regional health authority is spending £762,500 of its £2.07 million allocations on projects in the trauma and orthopaedic specialty. As a result, its districts plan to treat 1,650 extra cases from orthopaedic waiting lists in 1987–88. By 30 September 1987, 636 of these had already been treated.